Romney in swing state OH

Romney's brought on a cadre of Bush officials to serve as his senior policy advisers, lead his presidential transition effort and help him raise millions to fuel his run — the pillars of his campaign and a potential administration.

"Really, no coach wants to send a team on the field with all rookies," said veteran Republican fundraiser and strategist Fred Malek, who believes it's important for Romney to distinguish himself from his predecessor. "And the best thing to have is a combination of people with great experience and a track record so long as the energy and new ideas that come from new people that have not yet come from deeply in the government. I think that's really what Romney is looking to do and how the team shapes up to me."

On foreign policy, where Romney clearly distinguished himself from Bush on Monday night, 17 of Romney's 24 special advisers and the vast majority of his issue co-chairs worked in the Bush administration. Some of them are big names, like former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former CIA Director Michael Hayden and State Department vet Paula Dobriansky.

His transition team, which would staff up a potential administration, is run by Bush alum Michael Leavitt, former Health and Human Services secretary; Josh Bolton, Bush's chief of staff; Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president; and Emil Henry, who worked in Bush's Treasury Department, have also been in on the planning.

When it comes to raising money, Bush stalwarts are on board, including political operative Karl Rove, who has delivered personal briefings and fundraising appeals for the main super PAC supporting Romney.

Bush-era stars like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Vice President Dick Cheney have headlined fundraisers and attended mega-donor strategy sessions.

For its part, the Romney campaign says that he makes his own political calculations.

"Mitt Romney has assembled a diverse group of highly respected policy thinkers," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul in an email. "He fields their opinions, evaluates them and ultimately makes his own decisions on policy."

But, that hasn't stopped President Barack Obama from trying hard to link Romney as having old, misguided thinking from the Bush era. At the debate in Boca Raton, Fla., Obama closed the evening by saying that Romney "wants to take us back to those policies, a foreign policy that's wrong and reckless."

Democrats believe linking Romney with Bush can be effective on the campaign trail.

"There is still a holdover that George Bush unnecessarily got us into war and then prolonged it, and that foreign policy combined with a really weak domestic policy sort of created the hole that we're in," said Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen.

Further, Rosen said that branding Romney with Bush is effective because he has "projected an old-fashioned view of the Soviet Union, of women, of education, of energy, and I think that continuing to tie him to sort of what are icons of the past helps Obama on his being a leader for the future."

Romney is up to his ears in the Bush/Cheney administration. He has adopted their failed twofold plan: cut citizen-protecting regulations and give big, new, unaffordable and needless tax cuts to the wealthiest and billion-dollar welfare checks to our biggest corporations. He has embraced and embodied the Reagan voodoo economics, also embraced by Bush/Cheney, and has adopted the funny bookkeeping of Bush/Cheney (that didn't put entire wars on the books or a big drug program or tax cuts to the wealthy). He also uses the fictional numbers and math of Reagan and Bush/Cheney: you know, the numbers and math that led to exploding deficits and a mountain of new national debt. Romney has even adopted the "lie shamelessly" strategy of Rove and Bush/Cheney. Now we learn -- surprise, surprise -- that Romney has surrounded himself with the top men of the Bush/Cheney administration, including the neocon "preemptive strike" warmongers.

Do we really want a third Bush/Cheney administration? Can we really afford it yet? The last one almost did US in.

"He's had a stellar presidency when it comes to foreign policy and he kept our country safe, free from terrorist attacks," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "I think its something the president and Republicans should be very proud of."

Uh, Reince, do you not have a calendar? You might want to note that 9/11 happened almost 8 months after W took office. Or, does Reince not consider 9/11 to be a terrorist attack?

"Stellar presidency when it comes to foreign policy"". You're talking about W?

The article means nothing. Of course, Romney is drawing upon people from the Bush administration. When you're going about the business of setting up a new government, you draw upon the experiences of people who actually worked in government. Does anyone expect Romney to call upon members of the current administration?

The worst recession in 80 years? The 4,000+ dead soliders? The flooding of a major city and bungled federal response? The anti-muslim drum beat? Unliateralism and preemption? Not to mention replacing a surplus with the largest deficit ever. Oh, and the worst terrorist attack since pearl harbor.

I'm not worried, because after the third debate, I now understand that Romney would follow every Obama foreign policy, only... louder. Or whiter. Or something.

So clearly, the neocons would have no influence whatsoever. Because we also know that Romney can't be swayed by the political winds or by who's pressuring him more or by who he thinks he most needs to please.

The worst recession in 80 years? The 4,000+ dead soliders? The flooding of a major city and bungled federal response? The anti-muslim drum beat? Unliateralism and preemption? Not to mention replacing a surplus with the largest deficit ever. Oh, and the worst terrorist attack since pearl harbor.

Romney will make Bush look like Reagan. Let's move America forward not backward.

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Again. The recession started the moment Democrats took control of Congress.

2000 soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Obama did the surge there.

the flooding of New Orleans happened because of a hurricane not because Bush was president.

The muslim world is in flames right now! An ambassador is dead. Americans are dead. thousands of muslims are dead in the last year alone.

The surplus was provided to Americans thanks to Republicans in Congress based on the Contract with America. Bush added 5 trillion dollars to the national debt in 8 yerars. Obama has added the same amount in less than 4 years.

The auto industry wasn't dead under Bush. Obama paid his Union friends for his election.

We had 5% unemployment under Bush. 8% 9% under Obama.

Terrorists are dead because of our Military. Obama never took a rifle with him anywhere.

Wow, you shop at the wrong stores. My groceries don't cost anywhere close to that much. Although I know the severe drought this summer played havoc with food prices. Good thing global warming is a hoax.

Wow, you shop at the wrong stores. My groceries don't cost anywhere close to that much. Although I know the severe drought this summer played havoc with food prices. Good thing global warming is a hoax.

BlueLight - You said,,,,,The Bush years were by far more kind to Americans.

My dear man. Perhaps. But don't you have a clue as to what caused the US economy to almost totally collapse? You really have to get up to speed on the last 12 years. Have you been under a rock? Suggest you use Google and find articles to read about what transpired during the Bush/Cheney era. For the last 4 years, we have been digging ourselves out of the mess that Bush created. It was worse than originally thought. We are making progress but it has not been easy. Republicans want to return to those same failed policies. Romney is surrounding himself with former Bush people. It just ain't gonna work.

This article brings little new information to the fore. The tie of his campaign with that of former administrations means little and is to be expected. How can the wizard of Romneyland plan for the final demise of the Democratic process without those proficient in separating the elite class from those who serve. Likely the ties to the Bush administration bear little weight when contrasted to an eight year religious mission in Europe, conveniently out of reach of American law enforcement, spanning 1966 - 1974; however the most likely issue one may care to scrutinize is Mr. Romney's connection to Michael Milken since the late 1980s. Milken stole his fortune from thousands of retirees in the Savings & Loan scandal with junk bonds, Romney did business with Milken even though he was under federal investigation, and did so without batting an eye or considering where the funds for his business dealings came from. Anyone who steals from the elderly is likely not worthy of leading anything, and a draft dodging coward should not be trusted to send the sons and daughters of the American people into harm's way.

BlueLight - You said,,,,,The Bush years were by far more kind to Americans.

My dear man. Perhaps. But don't you have a clue as to what caused the US economy to almost totally collapse? You really have to get up to speed on the last 12 years. Have you been under a rock? Suggest you use Google and find articles to read about what transpired during the Bush/Cheney era. For the last 4 years, we have been digging ourselves out of the mess that Bush created. It was worse than originally thought. We are making progress but it has not been easy. Republicans want to return to those same failed policies. Romney is surrounding himself with former Bush people. It just ain't gonna work.

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The house market crashed because people that had no business buying houses they couldn't afford. That's what destroyed the economy. It happened because Republicans and Democrats were pandering to Americans. That should be lessons learned for all of us on what not to do, but if you want to make it a partisan issue, I'm game!!!!

Obama has given trillions of dollars to his crony friends in 4 years. Guess what....that's gonna come back and bite America in the arce one day the same way the house bubble hurt us. Who are you going to blame then? ROMNEY?!!

It is people like you that have lowered the standards for the president so that he can barely pass with a D minus. Which is something you refuse to give to Bush. That's fine. At least you hold Bush at a higher level than Obama.

Everyone knows that Republican conservatives chose Mitt Romney because he has convinced them that he’ll govern in exactly the same conservative way that George Bush governed, and that he’ll surround himself with all the same “neo-con” advisors and cabinet that George Bush did.

Wow - Mitt for once Flip Flop for the better and change the choice of people you are surrounding yourself with. If Bushies are so wonderful why haven't we seen W out there stumping for ya? Clearly you like his people a whole big bunch.